Regain Your Life with Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation > Regain Your Life with Rehabilitation
After a major surgery, you may suffer through a long bout of inactivity. You have even been disabled and laid up in bed at home or the hospital. Sadly enough, doubt and depression attack you in these moments, when you are at your weakest.
Thankfully, this is also when you can begin rehabilitation. Rehabilitation in its various forms allows you to regain some, if not all, of your former life. It can be a daunting and challenging path back, but in the long run, you’ll be happy when you are returned to your former state of independence.
Lessons for Living
One of the major forms of rehabilitation is called occupational therapy. The main goal is to help you regain your independence and your
In many cases, if you have been severely affected by stroke, an accident, or another condition, you may not be able to go on living exactly as you had before the condition.
The beauty of occupation therapy, though, is that it allows you to do all of the things you used to do, but in alternative methods if necessary. This leads to dramatic improvement in the quality of your life, and far less need for hospital stays or assisted living.
Whatever your lifestyle and life skills, occupational therapy can help you set
- Problem solving
- Independence
- Self Management Skills (e.g., for time, for money)
- Assertiveness
- Pastimes, hobbies, and other stress management skills
- Hygiene skills
Overall, occupational can help you regain your wellness if you have suffered a setback in health. It may be as simple as finding you a way to croquet as you used to before you broke your hip. Or helping you learn how to work from home after that heart attack.
Exercises for Life
Another major type of rehabilitation is called physical therapy. This is the kind most people are familiar with, mainly because more people have
Unlike occupational therapists, who generally intervene after more serious illnesses, physical therapists can also help young athletes who sprain a knee, a weekend warrior who threw out his shoulder, or a young mother who has back pain.
No matter what your condition is, physical therapists can work with you on a number of specialized exercises that are designed to heal your problem body part.
If you are re-learning to walk, for instance, a physical therapist may set up exercises to strengthen your weakened leg muscles. If you recently had shoulder surgery, on the other hand, he or she could devise stretching and strengthening exercises to gently rebuild the damaged tissue.
Physical therapists can also leave your with a regimen of exercises to do at home or in your hospital bed during your free time. Those these may seem like homework, they are as important for rehabilitation as are the exercises that you do in the physical therapist’s company.
All of the therapists’ exercises can help you with:
- Flexibility
- Strength
- Confidence
- Pain Reduction
- Balance
- Healing speed
Though rehabilitation may not return you to the perfect form that you were in before your injury or condition, it can go a long way to bringing you back to the old you. In tandem, occupation and physical therapy can heal both your body and your mind, returning you to a state of freedom
You may never heal from the scars of your surgery or completely get over your disease or condition, but no matter what, you must learn how to live with yourself for the —and more importantly, for the future.
It could be a matter as simple as regaining your ability to climb up your home’s stairs. Or it could be as radical as getting back to your mountain climbing hobby. Whatever your definition of life and self-reliance, rehabilitation can help you achieve it.